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When I catch a cold, it really only affects me at night. During the daytime, I’m fine! I can go for a run, workout, etc…. I’m good. No coughing, sneezing, nothing, maybe a little congestion. At night it’s a completely different story. Hacking cough, sneezing, watery eyes – the whole. 9. yards. The worse part is poor Dr. B. My coughing keeps him up all night. So, he has to start his week off sleepy and tired at work :-(

Before I went to bed last night, I drank the bottle of Nyquil. Then three hours later I was back up hacking. So, I drank more Nyquil, took some Delsym, Alka-Seltzer cold, and sucked on a cough drop. That combo of drugs allowed me a few more hours of sleep. Needless to say I’m very, very drowsy right now. Last year, the doctor gave me steroids to stop the coughing. I thought that was a little extreme. I’m out of ideas…Anybody have any suggestions?

I’m a people watcher. I love going into restaurants and watching couples interact. It’s often a telltale sign of the type of relationship they have. For instance couples that hardly speak a word to each other during the entire time that they are eating, I often wonder how long they’ve been married. Or when I see a couple that when seated at a booth, choose to sit next to each other rather than across from each other, I wonder if they just started dating. One of Dr. B’s favorite sayings is, “that’s an outward sign of an inward condition.” Which I truly believe holds true for married couples. Have you ever been at a party or social gathering and know that a couple came together, but they limited interaction doing the entire event? Do you pick up on those types of signs? I often wonder if as time goes by, do most couples lose the fire, or do the sparks begin to fade? Maybe they just aren’t in love with each other anymore…

A study that was published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 1970 titled: Measurement of Romantic Love determined that the way to tell if a couple is in love is to watch their eye contact. It was stated that:

Normally two people in conversation give each other eye contact anywhere from 30-60% of the time, but couples who are in love look at each other 75% of the time during conversation and are slower to break their look away from each other when interrupted.

Speaking from past experience, it makes perfect sense. If you don’t like someone, much less love them, you surely don’t want to be around that person and you’re not going to staring into their eyes. Things like eye contact, holding hands, packs on the cheek, pats on the butt… those little things hold a lot of meaning in a relationship. Each couple has their own little’ intimates’, which is what I call those physical interactions that keep you feeling connected to your loved one. Your own Morse code of sorts.

What signs or ‘intimates’ have you witnessed in a short-lived or lasting relationship? Do you and your loved one have a Morse code?

Ya’ll know I am a Billy Blanks follower. I’m now the proud owner of about 15 Billy Blanks workout DVDs since YouTube deleted several of the uploaded videos because of copyright infringement. But Amazon sells many of his old and new workouts for much less than retail, so I racked up. Tae Bo is a great cross training workout for the days that I don’t run. Billy has released a new workout series called Billy Blanks PT 24/7. PT 24/7 comes with gloves, and a set of bands that attach to the gloves and your feet.

Now, as much as I know for a fact that his workouts are really work, I cannot see myself paying 3 easy payments of $29.95. That’s almost $100! For Billy Blanks? I’m going to need him to come down on the price. I wonder if he has a lifetime-follower discount? Probably not? Oh, well, I’ll just wait. Come January people ditch their new year’s resolutions to lose weight and I bet I can find PT 24/7 for $20, on Amazon What’s the most you have paid for the a fitness craze?

A four-year research study found that gratitude contributes to a mutual process of relationship maintenance, in which each partner’s maintenance behaviors, perceptions of responsiveness, and feelings of gratitude feed back on and influence the other partner’s behaviors, perceptions, and feelings. In other words when a spouse felt gratitude towards the other, and they expressed that gratitude in some external way, this outward expression produced and influenced the other spouse’s feelings and behaviors of gratitude. This process between the two spouses was like a continuous feedback loop because gratitude motivates partners to engage in relationship maintenance.

Feeling gratitude without expressing it, is like wrapping a present and not giving it.

After reading this article, I started thinking about my relationship with my husband. I examined my acts of gratitude and relationship maintenance. I believe I am consistent and sincere when I express how much I appreciate him and everything he does for me. I am conscious of my behavior simply because my husband constantly shows me gratitude and I want to do the same to him. Actually he is good at showing everyone (who deserves it) gratitude. Anyone that knows him will attest to that. Based on this research, I’m sure that I conscientiously show him gratitude in many ways, because it is a natural response to his gratuitous behavior towards me.

So, the next time someone does something nice for you, don’t forget express your gratitude…it’s as easy as saying Thank You!

As long as I can remember I’ve been a runner. As a child I loved running and racing, and now as an adult I couldn’t imagine enjoying anything more except for being married. Running is hard, very hard a times. It’s much more mental for me than most would believe. The night before, I mentally set precedence for the mileage I will run the next day. If I’m feeling tired, then I mentally calculate how I will feel the next day during my run, and thus set a mileage goal. The same goes with being married. I decide if I want to get an attitude about something, or if I want to approach my husband as an adult and tell him what’s bothering me…it’s all mental.

Sometimes, I will have my mind-set on something, like what I think we should or shouldn’t do as a couple. Then a funny thing will happen, just like during a run I realize, I have sold myself short. Instead of only doing 3 miles, I feel good enough to continue and push through to 5 miles. Instead of being one tracked and thinking I know best all the time, I realize I have actually limited our growth as a couple because I was too stubborn to see past me. During those times, I reset my thinking to that which is essential to our goals as a couple and my growth as a wife.

So you see, for me running/marriage are both very similar. They are repetitive, pleasurable, and with practice you get better over time. Running/marriage feel great on good days, sometimes painful on those occasional ‘not so good’ days, and just right on those ‘in between’ days. But I stay focused and continue to progress as a wife and as a runner, because they are a part of who I am, what I love, and what I believe in.

Yesterday I read the article Get Fat and I’m Dumping You. The article discusses the idea of divorcing your spouse if they gained weight after marriage (I’ll save that particular topic for another day :-). I’m more interested in one of the other main points the author raised, which was that couples should be in agreement when it comes to diet health and fitness:

Most couples fight about money, sex, chores and children, but weight often factors into those issues. And just like a couple needs to be in tune with how they’ll raise their children and spend or save their money, they probably need to be like-minded when it comes to diet, health and fitness.

I couldn’t agree more. Dr. B and I met on Match.com and our profile both listed health and fitness as our interests. I have always been more attracted to men that worked out and took care of themselves. That’s not to say I would not have married a man who wasn’t into health and fitness, but I was aware that if I did marry a man who wasn’t, than we would not share an interest in something that I am passionate about – which for me is not an ideal situation. Although Dr. B and I didn’t have a health discussion before we were married, we both just kind of agreed about continuing our healthy lifestyles.

But, the idea of discussing health, fitness and nutrition up front and coming to an “agreement” about what type of lifestyle you would like to lead as a couple just makes a lot of sense to me. I want to live a long prosperous life with Dr. B, we both know we won’t achieve that if we don’t take care of ourselves. That means working out at least 5 days a week, eating healthy, and going to the doctor for routine check-ups and physicals. If you don’t have you health, what do you have? As the article says, engaged couples discuss money, children, and sex but, not health and nutrition. Shame on us for not realizing how our health is to a healthy marriage.

Do you and your husband have the same mindset when it comes to health and fitness? Did you discuss this topic before you were married, and has the topic health, fitness, nutrition of weight been a topic of debate between you?

Like this:

As I type, I am icing my legs with bags of frozen vegetables 0_0. I ran 5.96 miles in 56

Screenshot from my GPS run tracker iPhone application

minutes! That’s my long run for the week. Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday I will run 4 to 5 miles, and on Wednesday and Saturday Dr. B and I will bike. I love that feeling of accomplishment, when I finish a run.

I honestly didn’t think I even had it in me to get out there today, I was just not feeling it. But, then something clicked! I think it was the idea of starting a new week off on a positive note. Also I was still feeling good about completing the first part of my research paper for class, in addition to getting a 60 out of 60 points on the previous paper that I turned in! So, I’m feeling pretty darn good about myself right now :-)

What’s even more awesome is how emotionally and physically great I feel. I blogged about trying out the supplement Estroven for Menopause, and I darn near want to run out and buy stock in this company. This stuff works, I mean it really works. I had about 10% of the moodiness that I normally experience when I have PMS. Really only freaking 10%, meaning I only had one minor emotional issue, and practically NO water weight gain :-) *Yes*

I can feel it, this is going to be a great week….maybe we will even sell the house! How is Monday treating you so far?